Downtown digs

I'm quite a fan of my new workplace. It's in this industrial part of downtown LA, home to companies dealing in produce, pallets or scrap materials, or that manufacture or import different goods. Driving around this jumble of streets takes some vigilance because trucks come flying down the road. If I don't get into an accident (knock on wood), I should become a pretty badass driver in short order.

Today, we opened for business in the new warehouse and office. This is the view from my desk (left). The inventory in the yard belongs to Arnold, a 59-year-old Mexican guy who buys and sells pallets. I quite like having this view; there is always something interesting to look at. If you have ever seen a forklift in action, I think you would agree that forklifts and pallets are the product of a genius mind.

This is not the type of work environment that most MBAs end up in, I'll grant. We have no cubicles or morning meetings here, and you do have to get your hands dirty some of the time. But I like it, because it's real and tangible. It makes me feel alive.

Besides Arnold the pallet man, the cast of characters in our building consists of:

• Simon, our landlord. A 40ish Hong Kong guy who runs a toy import business that he is phasing out. A bit of a control freak, and sometimes talks too much. After seeing me all of three times, he commented that he thought I was "soft" and needed to toughen up. We'll see about that.
  
• Aroldo, 22-year-old Guatemalan who manages Simon's warehouse. Nice kid, pretty sharp, works hard, keeps a lot of fruit in his fridge.
  
• Three HK ladies in Simon's office, which looks like a bank because it used to be a bank. I probably won't see them much, except when I go in there to get our mail and stash my lunch in the fridge.
• A very large, tan Chinese woman who apparently used to do martial arts competitively. She runs a wholesale operations for some kinda trinkets. Glass figurines? Her warehouse guys are pretty tough-looking pair, with lots of tattoos and such.
  
• An Indian guy, also a wholesaler of some kind.

At first, I was not looking forward to sharing a building with other tenants. But I think it'll turn out to be muy divertido.